New Startup Event in Beijing Deflowers Hackathon Virgins

Of the 62 participants at 48Hour Start-Up, half were students, and three quarters had never been to a Startup Weekend or hackathon before. Organizer Matthieu David says the French Junior Economic Chamber wooed the hackathon virgins by promoting most heavily at local Beida and Tsinghua universities, as well as cutting the already cheap RMB 100 (about $16) entry price in half for students.

The event isn’t just new for participants. Matthieu says this past weekend’s event was the first of many to come in Beijing in four-month intervals. JCEF (the acronym is different in French) invited several keynote speakers who also doubled as mentors for the teams, including angel investor and entrepreneur Benjamin Joffe and App Annie CEO Bertrand Schmitt. Some of the teams already had a project in the works, while others started from scratch.

App Annie CEO Bertrand Schmitt (right) mentors a 48Hour Start-Up team.

“It’s useful at any stage to get feedback from some other people,” Schmitt said, talking about very young companies. “You want to find and divert any expense you can.”

Even with so much fresh blood, Schmitt said he issued much of the same advice he gave at similar events in the past. The most common question he poses to teams is how they plan to monetize their product.

David said, for first-timers, “The difference in advice they have is more about whether or not they are familiar with the industry.”

He said he was a little concerned about taking up too much working time with speaker presentations, but in the end, “I think that was good because even those who haven’t won have learned a lot.”

Let’s be honest, no reasonable amount of time will seem enough for a group of people who have never met before to create a product and pitch it to investors. As one newbie put it, “They could have a startup week, or a startup month.”

The top prize was taken home by the ALGEN team, a hardware-focused group that uses sensors to detect intruders, medical emergencies, or safety risks like a house fire.

JCEF organizers encouraged everyone involved not to hit and quit it after a weekend fling by creating a WeChat group to stay in touch.